Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on November 24, 2013.

Swami Bhaskarananda examines the nature of thought, explaining that thinking, feeling, and willing are all forms of knowing, and that a single thought can “wear” many garments—such as different languages or different emotional tones. Using Vedantic analogies, he describes thought as a modification of the mind (vritti), like waves arising on still water, and he outlines the relationship between mind and the sense powers, emphasizing that the senses are subtle instruments that operate through the physical organs.

He then turns to how thought can assume increasingly complex forms, from simple images and sounds to the vast, composite world experienced in dreams. From this, he introduces a Vedantic perspective on appearance and reality: names and forms change, but underlying existence is unchanging and belongs to the Divine. Through illustrations such as the ocean and its waves, and the screen on which a film is projected, he points to the need to disidentify from the mind’s shifting “garments” of ego, status, and pleasure-pain, in order to approach awareness of inherent divinity. He concludes by noting the tradition’s teaching on levels of speech and sacred sound, and by encouraging earnest spiritual practice under the guidance of scripture and teacher, so that knowledge of the Self can dawn beyond the restless play of thought.